13 Facts About Tom Ascheim

From 1998 to 2003, Ascheim was the general manager of Noggin, which started as a tween-targeted channel co-owned by Nickelodeon and Sesame Workshop.

Tom Ascheim later held several executive roles for both Nickelodeon and Sesame Workshop.

In high school, Tom Ascheim worked as an air conditioning repair man, and giving out flyers for a borough presidential candidate in the Bronx.

In 1985, Tom Ascheim earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in American Studies from Yale University.

Tom Ascheim joined Viacom in 1990 as the Vice President of Nickelodeon Business Development and Media Products, and in 1997 was promoted to Vice President of Business Development, Publishing and Media.

In July 1998, Tom Ascheim was named the first employee and general manager of Noggin, a cable network created by Nickelodeon and Sesame Workshop that would launch in early 1999.

Tom Ascheim oversaw the network's content library and its original series.

Tom Ascheim helped create a variety of the interstitial series that Noggin played, often using talent from Sesame Workshop.

Tom Ascheim oversaw multiple rebrands of the channel, including introducing the host characters of Moose and Zee in 2003.

Tom Ascheim left Nickelodeon in 2007 to become the CEO of Newsweek, where he oversaw global operations of the publication and its merger with The Daily Beast.

In 2012, it was announced that Tom Ascheim had been named by Sesame Workshop as their chief strategy officer and executive vice president of Sesame Learning.

Tom Ascheim was the driving force behind the network's rebranding as Freeform.

Tom Ascheim was of Freeform until April 2020, when he stepped down to take the position of president of Warner Bros.